TEACHING WRITING? (Gültekin Boran)

WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS OF WRITING IN THE CLASSROOM?

PROBLEMS OF WRITING? Most students find writing boring. (WHY?) Most students don’t know what to write. (Writer’s block) (WHY?) Most students are afraid of writing. (WHY) Students write in a disorganized way. (WHY?) Writing is meaningless because there are no realistic audience and genre.

REASONS AND SOLUTIONS Most students find writing boring. The topic is not interesting enough. Give topics that appeal to them. Give options for them to choose. Reveal what topics your students like writing about.

REASONS AND SOLUTIONS 2) Most students don’t know what to write. (Writer’s block) (WHY?) Students don’t remember anything to write about. The teacher should do pre-writing activities, for instance topic and vocabulary brainstorming, class discussion, watching a video about the topic, reading about the topic..ect. Get them to read a sample.

REASONS AND SOLUTIONS 3) Most students are afraid of writing. (WHY?) Most students worry about their grades. They are afraid of making mistakes. The teacher’s attitude is very negative and impolite to the students who make mistakes. The teacher should correct his/her attitude. The teacher should ask students to keep a dialogue journal in which they can write without worrying about mistakes and getting low grades.

REASONS AND SOLUTIONS 4) Students write in a disorganized way. (WHY?) They cannot organize their ideas because they don’t make an outline before they write. The teacher should teach how to make outlines. He/she should introduce different types of outline. Students should also write a few drafts before writing the actual writing task.

REASONS AND SOLUTIONS 5) Writing is meaningless because there are no realistic audience and genre. The audience (reader) is usually the teacher. Create other audiences like the students of other classes, students of the same class, committee members of a writing competition ..etc. The genre is usually a paragraph or an essay that is read and evaluated by the teacher. Try other kinds of genre. For example, an e-mail, a business letter, an application letter, short story, a letter to a girl/boy friend, an SMS message, a news article, a poem, a film critique, ..etc

THE THREE STEPS PRE-WRITING WRITING (WHILE-WRITING) POST-WRITING

1) PRE-WRITING Check if students have necessary knowledge about the topic. Do brain storming activities about the topic. Do class discussion about the topic. Do vocabulary brain storming. Check if students have any grammar problems. Do necessary grammar exercises about the key grammar points for the task. Show a video or play an audio recording about the topic. Get students to read a sample. Get your students to make an outline.

2) WRITING (WHILE-WRITING) Get your students to write at least one draft. Allow your students to consult you about any problems. Check the drafts and give necessary feedback. Students write the actual version of the writing task.

3) POST-WRITING Give feedback about common errors. Do further grammar or/and vocabulary work. Integrate another language skill, for instance speaking to writing.

RESPONDING TO LEARNERS’ WRITING

WHAT DO WE EVALUATE? 1. Language Grammar (accurate and appropriate use of grammar) Vocabulary choice and use Style 2. Mechanics 1) Punctuation 2) Capitalization 3) Contractions 4) Spelling

WHAT DO WE EVALUATE? 3. Organization Introduction (Topic sentence) Body (main ideas and supporting details) Conclusion 4. Content Covering the topic Enough examples to support the ideas

USING CORRECTION SYMBOLS Writing only the correct form over the error is not very useful. Using correction symbols increases students’ curiosity about their errors and students do self correction.

SOME CORRECTION SYMBOLS S = spelling error P = punctuation error V = verb tense error VO = incorrect word order WW = wrong word used DAgr = disagreement (subject verb (e.g. My brothers is), adjective noun (e.g. long boy), pronoun noun (e.g This books ) // = new paragraph needed = good, well done, I like this ? = I don’t understand this ^ = something missing

DIALOGUE JOURNALS Dialogue Journals are in the form of a notebook (However, there are also e-dialogue journals). The student writes on ones page and the teacher or a classmate writes on the opposite page. No correction is done in dialogue journals.

AIMS OF DIALOGUE JOURNALS 1) To encourage fluency in writing 2) To increase students’ self confidence in writing 3) To reduce writer’s block 4) It sets rapport between the student and the teacher

PORTFOLIO Portfolio is a compilation of students’ work, which demonstrates how much effort they have put into their work, their progress and achievement in their learning, and their reflection on the materials chosen for the portfolio. The portfolio is beneficial not only to students but also to teachers. The portfolio acts as a bridge between “instruction and assessment”

PORTFOLIO Benefits of using portfolio assessment Portfolio matches assessment to teaching. The products that are assessed are mainly products of class work, and are not divorced from class activities like test items.   Portfolio has clear goals. They are decided on at the beginning of instruction and are clear to teacher and students alike. Portfolio gives a profile of learner abilities. Depth: It enables students to show quality work, which is done without pressure and time constraints, and with the help of resources, reference materials and collaboration with others.                 Breadth:                 A wide range of skills can be demonstrated.

PORTFOLIO Benefits of using portfolio assessment Growth: It shows efforts to improve and develop, and demonstrates progress over time. Portfolio is a tool for assessing a variety of skills. Written as well as oral and graphic products can easily be included.   Portfolio develops awareness of students own learning. Students have to reflect on their own progress and the quality of their work in relation to known goals.   Portfolio caters to individuals in the heterogeneous class. Since it is open-ended, students can show work on their own level. Since there is choice, it caters to different learning styles and allows expression of different strengths. .

PORTFOLIO Benefits of using portfolio assessment Portfolio develops social skills. Students are also assessed on work done together, in pairs or groups, on projects and assignments.   Portfolio develops independent and active learners. Students must select and justify portfolio choices; monitor progress and set learning goals.   Portfolio can improve motivation for learning and thus achievement. Empowerment of students to prove achievement has been found to be motivating.

PORTFOLIO Portfolio is an efficient tool for demonstrating learning. Benefits of using portfolio assessment Portfolio is an efficient tool for demonstrating learning. Different kinds of products and records of progress fit conveniently into one package; changes over time are clearly shown.   Portfolio provides opportunity for student-teacher dialogue. Enables the teacher to get to know each and every student. Promotes joint goal-setting and negotiation of grades.  

Traditional Portfolio Measures student's ability at one time Measures student's ability over time Done by teacher alone; student often unaware of criteria Done by teacher and student; student aware of criteria Conducted outside instruction Embedded in instruction Assigns student a grade Involves student in own assessment Does not capture the range of student's language ability Captures many facets of language learning performance Does not include the teacher's knowledge of student as a learner Allows for expression of teacher's knowledge of student as learner Does not give student responsibility Student learns how to take responsibility

Procedures of the portfolio process

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